Making your own dice?

My first master dice.

So you want to make your own dice, or you are just curious as to what goes into making handmade dice? Well then you are in the right place. It has taken me quite a while to get to this point and I have made plenty of mistakes but perhaps I can save you form making them too.

On the surface of it making resin dice is rather simple, buy a mold, or set of molds, resin, dyes and mica powders for colour, mix up your desired look, pour the resin and wait for it to set. Voila dice! If only it were always that easy.

Then you get ambitious you want more colours, more patterns, dirty pours, petri dice, do you use blanks and shells, what other than mica and dye can you put in them? How much dye to you use? How much is too much? Too Little?

Next comes designing your own dice masters so you can chose the font, have your logo on them. If you plan to sell your dice it is very important to make your own or buy a set that is open for commercialization. Don’t copy another crafters designs, it is just not cool and can even get you into legal trouble.

This is the point where your bank account will be whimpering. I have spent thousands getting all the various pieces of equipment you need, admittedly some of them are simply quality of life improvements, no one likes to hand polish d20s especially if you have a lot of them to do!

A not so complete list of dice making equipment:

• Fume rated mask (you do not want to be inhaling resin fumes)

• Safety glasses

• Nitrile gloves

• Ear Protection (compressors can be loud!)

• Resin

• Silicone rubber (I use Dragon Skin 20)

• Micha Powders

• Alcohol Dye

• Dice Masters and Printing

• Art Commissions

• Pressure Pot

• Air Compressor

• Zona Paper

• Clippers

• Exacto Knives and Blades

• Measuring cups either disposable or reusable silicone

• Pipettes

• Popsicle Sticks

• Solo Cups

• Painters Tape

• Funnel

• Tumbler

• Tumbler Media

I am sure I have forgotten a few things, there is always something!